


Broken Minds

by mayaaminmin



Category: Children of Blood and Bone - Fandom, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Legacy of Orïsha - Tomi Adeyemi
Genre: Abuse, Amari goes feral, Amari has issues, Amari loses it, Concerned Zelie, Dubious Morality, Gen, Kidnapping, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Not Canon Compliant, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23112298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayaaminmin/pseuds/mayaaminmin
Summary: She was betrayed by Inan. She betrayed Zélie. And now, she must pay the price.Using magic always comes at a cost. And for the children of Ori, the god of the mind, spirit, and dreams, they find that they must offer a great deal more than others for their god's favor.Amari is willing to pay.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Broken Minds

She was betrayed by Inan. She betrayed Zélie. And now, she will pay the price.

Zélie races to the Iyika's sanctuary and Inan retreats to the Queen's military. 

Amari has nowhere to go. Neither side will take her back after what she's done.

So Amari takes a deep breath and plants her feet in the ground, and listens.

She reaches out and searches for the other Connectors in Inan's army. Other tîtáns, like her. She listens for their heartbeats, but she cannot find any. The only other Connector she hears is running away from the battlefield. Inan.

 _All this time I thought I'd been choosing Orïsha, but I was only choosing myself,_ Amari grits her teeth as she prepares to harness her powers as a tîtán. Zélie may not approve of her methods, but now she has no choice.

_Today, I choose Orïsha._

The first wave of titans crashes through the brush. 

_Ori, give me strength._

Something snaps in Amari’s mind.

Ori’s power fills her body and her arms glow bright Connector blue and her eyes burn with fury. She cannot see that Ori’s power flares out of her eyes like a great blue flame.

Amari strikes.

A blue wave of power crashes into the tîtáns and just as quickly as she feels their minds humming with a million thoughts, fear, surprise, anger, confusion, hatred, Amari freezes them in place and watches the soldiers drop to the ground, stunned and unconscious.

Behind her, she can hear the Iyika racing forward to defend their sanctuary. Amari takes a deep breath and starts running into the army of tîtáns. As maji Burners and Winders and Grounders come upon the army, Amari runs deeper into the crowd of tîtáns. She has no time to focus on her targets, and she still lacks the control of a maji.

If she cannot harness her ashé like a thread through a needle, then she can release the hammer in the middle of the army.

_Ori, give me strength._

When she is surrounded, she lets her ashé flow freely and stuns the tîtáns, clearing her path and running faster as they collapse around her. If she had more control, she would sever the threads that connect their minds to their bodies, but she is still untrained in her powers and has the precision of a bull. Stunning them will have to do.

Amari dodges attacks and anyone that gets too close. As she gets closer to the Queen’s army, most tîtáns merely spare her a glance of confusion and keep running into the battle. In the back of her mind, she can hear Inan's heart pounding as he races towards mother. Towards his safety.

 _A coward_ , Amari snarls as she forces her legs to run faster despite the burn, _you are unfit to rule the kingdom. You are unfit to sit on Orïsha's throne._

He is close now, his heartbeat pounds in her ears just as loudly as her own. Amari stuns a crowd surrounding a crouching cheetanaire. They all fall limp to the jungle floor, all except for Inan.

Inan raises his hands up in surrender while Amari raises her own to strike, her hands sparking with blue power and her eyes seemingly glowing with Ori's power. Or perhaps it is her fury.

Tîtán soldiers approach them, but before Amari can stun them Inan orders them away.

"Do not approach us, focus on the Iyika. This is a personal matter, between me and my sister."

"I am not your sister, Inan, not anymore," Amari curls her lip in disgust, "You betrayed me. You betrayed Zélie. You're not the person I thought you were."

"Amari, please," Inan begs and takes a step forward, but Amari raises her hands between them.

"Don't come any closer."

"Please, Amari, you have to believe me," Inan pleads, "You know I never wanted this. Mother is the one directing and ordering the tîtáns. I only ever wanted peace for Orïsha."

"Lies," Amari snarls, "You only tell me what I want to hear, and then you'll stab me in the back and leave us for dead. But listen closely, brother."

Amari spits out the last word in disgust as she takes a step forward and grabs Inan by the front of his shirt.

"You get one chance and only one to prove yourself, to me, to Zélie. Come with me to the Iyika and let them judge your words."

Inan's eyes practically bulge out of their sockets, "Amari, no! They'll kill me where I stand."

"Then I was right," Amari releases Inan with a sneer and shoves him away roughly, he stumbles slightly before catching himself.

"If you can’t even trust them enough to spare your life long enough for you to plead your case, then how can you possibly think they’ll believe you’ll do the same for them? How can you possibly persuade them to believe in or even listen to you and your so-called peace for Orïsha if you can’t trust them to spare you for five seconds!"

Amari is trembling with fury and Ori’s power curls threateningly around her arms and eyes.

"I'm bringing you to the Iyika, if not willingly then by force." 

_Ori, give me strength._

Blue tendrils shoot out from Amari's hands towards Inan's head, he drops to his knees and clutches his head in pain, jerking as he tries to push her power away from him. Inan chokes out a sob and writhes as Amari forces his mind to bend to her will. He heaves and sobs and whines as Amari forces her will into his mind. Sweat beads down both siblings’ brows and Amari grits her teeth as she continues to push and push and push against Inan. Until finally, she feels something break and Inan freezes and then straightens, staring blankly ahead with glowing blue eyes.

Amari takes a breath before mounting the waiting ryder and ordering Inan to climb onto the large cheetanaire behind her. He moves jerkily and awkwardly, he does not have the fluidity of a regular human, as he obeys Amari’s commands. Inan holds onto Amari tightly before she grips the ryder's reins and they take off towards the sanctuary.

The powerful ryder leaps over titans and maji alike as Amari focuses all her energy towards keeping Inan under her control. 

The fatigue of using so much magic at once is starting to take a toll on Amari.

_Ori, give me strength._

Distantly, Amari recognizes the sound of a horn echoing throughout the jungle. She wonders what it could mean when the ryder stumbles upon the entrance to the sanctuary. Iyika members are running towards them from the jungle and Amari wonders whether it means that they have won. She dismounts the cheetanaire and orders Inan to do the same before scanning the crowd for the other elders.

She doesn’t have to search for long as everybody takes notice of the King sitting behind her with glowing blue eyes.

“Amari, what have you done?”

Zélie eyes her warily, she is horrified with Amari, but she continues to unleash her shadows of death on the tîtáns. The maji give her a wide berth as she dismounts the ryder and orders Inan to do the same. A few of them keep an eye on the pair, ready to restrain them should the need arise, while the others keep running towards the jungle to defend the Iyika sanctuary. All avoid Amari’s wild amber eyes that seem to glow from within and Inan’s glassy blue ones, the spark of humanity gone, replaced with Amari’s power.

“I invited him to speak before the elders, and he was ready to leave without even saying hello,” Amari laughs darkly, “I made a mistake Zélie and I want to fix it. Please let me fix it.”

“Amari, what have you done!” Zélie repeats herself aggressively, and the other Reapers jump at their elder’s anger. 

“How can a girl as brilliant as you be so stupid? You have forced the Queen’s hand-”

“She would have destroyed us all either way because of him!” Amari cuts her off as she jerks her head towards her brother.

“But now she might be reasonable and listen to us.”

“You don’t know that, Amari!” Zélie argues, “This woman has killed thousands of maji and hundreds of tîtáns to secure her position in the kingdom. There is no reasoning with her when it comes to the throne.”

“Then Nehanda will force _my_ hand.”

Amari makes a fist and her hand glows bright Connector blue. Inan jerks and drops to his knees with a thud, then he grips his forearms tightly behind him and hangs his head, exposing his bare neck.

“I know my mother,” Amari grins manically, madly, but she speaks softly, sadly, “There’s only one thing in the world she cares more about than Orïsha and it’s him. She will listen to us.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Zélie asks desperately, searching Amari’s face for some semblance of the girl she met in Lagos so long ago, “What then, Amari?”

“Inan betrayed you, Inan betrayed me.” 

Amari’s manic stare meets Zélie’s impassive one, but the Connector can sense the fearful and disgusted thoughts racing through the Reaper’s mind when she tightens her fist and Inan begins to choke.

“All traitors to the crown must be punished.”

_Ori, give me strength._

**Author's Note:**

> many thoughts, head full. i enjoyed writing this. i love seeing characters go feral and i was kinda disappointed we couldn't see much of Amari's reaction to the betrayal in the book. So i wrote a little fic. As a treat.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are appreciated! You can find me on my main tumblr @mayaaminmin if you wanna chat!


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